1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an electronic connector and, more particularly, to a compensating circuit board connector.
2. Description of Related Art
An electronic device is provided therein with a circuit system for realizing specific functions. The electronic circuits of such a device are usually integrated into one or more printed circuit boards. When the circuits are distributed on several circuit boards, conducting wires or connectors are required for connecting transmission-line networks of the circuit boards. For example, a large light-emitting diode (LED) bulletin board is composed of a plurality of circuit boards equipped with LEDs, and the adjacent circuit boards are connected by circuit board connectors to make a complete circuit system.
Taiwan Patent No. M353514 discloses a circuit board connector as shown in FIG. 1 through FIG. 4, wherein FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the circuit board connector of the prior art, and FIG. 2 to FIG. 4 are perspective views of a socket, a jumper, and a jumper terminal of the circuit board connector of the prior art, respectively. This conventional circuit board connector 10 is formed by two sockets 12, 13 and a jumper 11. The sockets 12, 13 have the same structure and are disposed on adjacent circuit boards, respectively. Each of the sockets 12, 13 is provided with a plurality of receiving terminals 122, 132. The jumper 11 is mated with the sockets 12, 13 and provided with a plurality of jumper terminals 111 for electrically connecting the corresponding receiving terminals 122, 132 of the sockets 12, 13.
The socket 12 includes an insulating seat 120. The insulating seat 120 is provided with a plurality of receiving grooves 121 arranged at intervals so as to receive the receiving terminals 122, respectively. On the other hand, the jumper 11 includes an insulating cover 110 for receiving the jumper terminals 111. As shown in the drawings, each receiving terminal 122 is provided with clamping plates while each jumper terminal 111 has a plate-shaped structure. The jumper terminals 111 are tightly clamped by the corresponding receiving terminals 122 to realize the terminal mating structure of the circuit board connector 10.
Since circuit boards are cut to shape with machines, the actual dimensions of the finished circuit boards tend to deviate from design dimensions. In a system where circuit boards are connected to one another, the permissible variation in dimensions, or dimensional tolerance, of the circuit boards often causes a positional offset between corresponding components on the circuit boards; therefore, when the sockets of the conventional circuit board connector are disposed on adjacent circuit boards, respectively, an offset between the sockets is inevitable. However, the conventional circuit board connector does not allow for the generally existing positional offset between circuit boards and requires a tight fit between the terminals. When a relatively large positional offset exists between the two sockets of the conventional circuit board connector, the jumper mated with the sockets tends to pull the circuit boards through the sockets. As a result, socket solder points are very likely to fall off, thus damaging the circuits and impairing device performance. Even if the device does not fail during the manufacturing process, the damaged circuits will eventually reduce the service life of the device.
In view of the negative impacts of the terminal tight-fit design of the conventional circuit board connector on device reliability, the inventor of the present invention proposes a compensating circuit board connector to overcome the drawbacks of the prior art.